


the one with the shirts

by glycerineclown



Category: Looking (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M, REUNITING THE SHIRTS, but that didn't happen, i briefly considered writing this FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE SHIRTS, sadness and ice cream and getting back together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 15:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6121261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glycerineclown/pseuds/glycerineclown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richie still has Patrick’s white dress shirt, the one Patrick lent him when he spilled coffee on his blue one, the day of the wedding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the one with the shirts

Richie still has Patrick’s white dress shirt, the one Patrick lent him when he spilled coffee on his blue one, the day of the wedding. 

He’d hung it up after he got home. It’s still in his closet.

The problem is, Richie doesn’t really have a closet, he has a freestanding clothes rack. After he breaks up with Patrick, he takes it off the hanger, folds it up and shoves it in the dresser.

Well, he’d like to think he shoved it. More like he carefully placed it in the bottom drawer with his winter sweaters.

 

Patrick decides it’s too Brokeback Mountain to not get Richie’s blue shirt dry cleaned.

But that doesn’t mean he has to return it right away.

He throws it over the back of a chair after picking it up from the dry cleaners after work, and it lays there for a few days before he finally puts it in his closet. He’ll bring it up with Richie if and when Richie wants to talk.

Richie breaks up with him.

He eats a pint of ice cream and watches Brokeback Mountain by himself. It’s been a couple years since he last saw it and the pain hits fresh. And then— _the sleeves,_ _Heath’s dead, he’s in shambles_ —he cries into his bowl.

 

Richie still has Patrick’s shirt when Brady spends the night for the third time, and the tenth time, and the last time. 

Brady hints at wanting a drawer, but Richie doesn’t ever give him one.

 

Patrick packs Richie’s shirt up with the rest of his things when he moves in with Kevin, because he doesn’t know what else to do with it. He can’t bear to use up the opportunity of trading it back while Richie’s with someone else.

Patrick never does end up taking his clothing out of the boxes, so it goes right back where it belonged within a few days. 

He finally takes the plastic off after that, and in a fit of masochism, tucks the  _escapulario_ over the hanger.

 

Richie comes to him first, but they’d been talking often enough after the haircut that it isn’t exactly out-of-the-blue. When they hug on the stoop and really let themselves sink into each other instead of just exchanging pleasantries, Richie feels Patrick breathe him in. 

He never wants to stop touching—their hands wander everywhere and faces just slot into each other.

Richie feels his chest tighten up and lets out a deep breath as Patrick pulls him up the stairs and into his apartment.

 

Patrick watches Richie sleep, and feels like he’s been turned inside-out. Richie had fucked him so thoroughly, left beard burn and fingerprints and saliva all over him. He’s tingly and restless, and groggy and happy. 

Patrick rolls onto his back and looks at the open doors of his closet, and picks out Richie’s shirt with his eyes in the dark.

 

Richie moves in when Agustin moves out—shacking up with Eddie, actually—and when he’s tucking some of his clothes into Patrick’s closet, he finds his blue shirt. 

It actually makes him gasp.

He tucks Patrick’s white one onto a hanger and places them next to each other. The white one is rumpled and creased, and Richie tugs on it and smiles.

Richie doesn’t mention it, he just takes the _escapulario_ and puts it back where it should be, around Patrick’s neck.

He has no idea why it took him so long.


End file.
